Top sprinter Xavier James yesterday left the Island for Florida to continue his quest to qualify for the summer Olympics in Greece.

By doing so the 27-year-old turned his back on an invition from former Bermuda Olympian Troy Douglas to team up with him in his adopted homeland of Holland where James would have various options of competing in nearby countries throughout Europe.

But financial restraints forced James to turn to the United States eastern seaboard which offers similarly vast choices of meets according to the Southampton resident who hopes to qualify in either the 100 or 200 metres.

?While I appreciate Troy?s invitation I feel more comfortable going to a place like Florida instead of all of the way to Holland. I realise the many opportunities that I would be afforded if I had gone there, but to be honest it?s far more costly and I don?t have that sort of financial support to splash out travelling all over Europe,? he said.

?I realise it?s getting late and I have less time to try to qualify, but I remain optimistic and intend to give this, probably my last chance, my best at trying to represent my country at the Olympics.?

The Gilbert Institute teacher, who has been on the Island working on getting into top physical shape in recent weeks, expects to compete in his first meet on May 22 in Florida.

And he stressed that his main intention was to be as active as possible every week after that since there remained so little time for him to work towards meeting the qualifying standards.

James? last competitive meet was in Clermont, Florida in February when he turned in solid performances while failing to reach the qualifying standards in both 100 metres and 200 metres.

He won the 100 metres event but his time of 10.40 was just under the Olympic qualifying mark of 10.27. He also came home first in the 200 metres but the 21.43 effort was below the qualifying 20.75, although he also was the winner of that race.